Hi, I'm Rosie. I'm a writer based in London. I write a lot of letters to myself about stuff like creativity, productivity, philosophy, and books - then sometimes I publish them. I write more on Medium these days, so you can get all my posts by following me there or, paywall-free, by subscribing to my newsletter.

Let's keep this simple. I won't promise you a bunch of fancy ebooks (that you'll never read), video courses or my first-born child in exchange for your email address.

I send an email consisting of recent writing about three times a month. Shoot me a reply to the welcome email and I'll send you a handwritten postcard to say hi.

Because that’s what planning can so easily become: a form of escapism.Crack open a crisp new Moleskine notebook. Open a neat calendar, the days dissected into slots. Pull up a to-do list app with its buttery smooth design.

I write a lot. This blog is the tip of the iceberg. But seeing as writing is both my job and my hobby, I have (in spite of myself) built up some sort of routine. It helps me get into the mindset where I can shut off my internal dialogue and just write.

For some people, having their shit together means being happily married with a little brood of kids, a paid off mortgage, and shiny hair. For some, it means managing to pay the bills, get laundry done, shower once in a while, and smile sometimes. For some, it means passing out drunk on a front lawn less than three times a week.

“It is very difficult to go through life when your core belief about yourself is that you are incompetent and do not count. When you have no sense of your own value, you are like a leaf in the wind, dependent on what others think of you to know who you are.” ― Valerie Porr

It’s a cliche at this point to talk about how we all wear masks, we all portray a fake image on social media, we all lie and conceal our true selves. Of course we do. We always will as long as it’s not socially acceptable to do things that everyone does. And although that’s seen as a bad thing, it’s not. We wear masks because it liberates us.

As it is, we can picture McCandless as being like ourselves, only truly free. Whatever that means. We can ignore the obvious physical and mental toll of prolonged isolation and imagine that with a few different choices it could all have been fine.